Washington lily is a tall mountain lily with large, white, strongly fragrant flowers. Despite its name it has nothing to do with Washington state, where it does not grow. The botanist Albert Kellogg described it in 1859 and named it for Martha Washington, and its whole range lies in the Cascade, Klamath and Sierra Nevada mountains of Oregon and California.
Plants can top six feet, with narrow leaves arranged in tiers of whorls around the stem and as many as 20 flowers near the top. Each slightly nodding blossom opens white, often sprinkled with fine purple dots, and turns pinkish to purple as it ages. Plants in Oregon belong to the subspecies known as the Cascade lily or purple-flowered Washington lily. It favors brushy openings and open conifer forest, including young forest growing back after disturbance, and it blooms in summer. A single seed capsule can hold more than 200 seeds.
Washington lily grows from a bulb, and the Forest Service warns against ever collecting wild plants or bulbs. Enjoy the flowers where they stand and leave them to set seed for the next generation.
How to identify it
A tall, unbranched lily up to about 6.5 feet, with narrow leaves 1.5 to 4.5 inches long in one to several whorls around the stem. Up to 20 large, slightly nodding, fragrant flowers have six white tepals 2.5 to 3.5 inches long, often finely spotted with purple, that spread or curve back and turn pink to purple with age.
Look-alikes
Columbia lily has smaller yellow-orange to reddish orange flowers, heavily spotted, with strongly curled-back tepals. Washington lily's larger flowers open white.
Habitat
Brushy openings and open conifer forest, including young forest regrowing after disturbance, from about 1,300 to 7,200 feet in the Cascade, Klamath and Sierra Nevada ranges.
Sightings in the forest
392 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on July 22, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →